The Day of the Jackal movie: Do you find the stories of Perfect crime intriguing and fascinating? Well, we all do. But without being cruel, let me break it to you that Perfect crime doesn’t exist at all. Evidently, an event that has or will ever occur, will always leave its trace. Now you may argue that there are cases like the political assassination of JF Kennedy or the purported hijacking by DB Cooper that have remained virtually unsolved mysteries. Such cases remain mystery purely because of the incompetence and the hidden compulsions of the investigating agencies.
But what if, both the criminal and the authorities are a complete match to each other. Believe you me, such a cat and mouse chase become a roller coaster ride full of entertainment, excitement and thrills.
Synopsis
Released in the year 1973, ‘The day of the Jackal’ is based on the acclaimed novel written by Frederick Forsyth. He was famous for writing spy novels in which the protagonist was usually either a spy or political assassin.
The film stars Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale in the main roles. It was directed by Austrian-American film director Fred Zinnemann. The four Academy Awards bestowed to him for film direction are enough to gouge his stature and prowess in the art of filmmaking.
Additionally, it was Zinnemann who directed and introduced a host of stars to Hollywood including Marlon Brando and Meryl Streep among others.
The Day of the Jackal movie revolves around the time when French President Charles De Gaulle announced to grant Independence to its erstwhile colony Algeria.
It chronicles the efforts of notorious militant underground organisation OAS (Secret Armed Organisation in English) to keep Algeria as a French colony. For that the group devises a plan to assassinate their own President Charles de Gaulle. However, they face serious challenges in their way as the French Action Service keeps nullifying their assassination attempts on the President.
The mystery around Jackal
It was the time of 1962. The nearly impregnable cavalcade of French President Charles de Gaulle was rushing through a secret route. In a surprise attack, a heavily armed group of assassins launched a blitzkrieg and ambushed the President’s motorcade. But the group failed and the President escaped unharmed.
After the brutal attempt at their President, French security agencies launched a repressive crack down on the OAS. Later its leader Jean Bastien-Thiry was captured and executed. Quickly, the OAS realise that the group have been compromised and would have to rope in an anonymous but professional assassin to carry out the job. Thereafter, the OAS leaders in exile hired a British assassin dubbed as “Jackal”.
Going further, The Day of the Jackal movie highlights the painstaking research, meticulous planning behind assassination and eye for detail. Rather than overdramatization and machismo, the director Zinnemann has put the focus on procedures and in-depth planning.
Evidently, the cold hearted and ruthless assassin Jackal crosses the nation’s boundaries with ease through well-thought-out forgery and fabrication of documents. The act was so real that any further cases related to forgery of passports in the same manner as the movie are now known as the ‘Day of the Jackal fraud’.
Without rushing to the final act, The Day of the Jackal movie craftily builds up the suspense. All throughout the film, the balance keeps shifting both ways and leaves the audiences guessing till the very last.
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The legendary style of Filmmaking
Contrary to popular portrayal, this movie was historic in the way that it showcased the film from the prism of a villain protagonist. Later on, this became a successful template.
The Hollywood movie tried to be as near to reality as possible. Thus, it had its hand tied behind its back. The Day of the Jackal movie was always bound to end with assassination attempt failing miserably because President De Gaulle always survived assassination attempts.
However, the American director Zinnemann never lost the grip of the plot and didn’t let suspense evaporate. Jackal always seemed to be two steps ahead of French officer Claude Lebel. Being an undeterred assassin Jackal even planned for wind direction, angle of his shot, perfect hiding place and backstory to hide his custom-made rifle.
Without despising the villain or the officer Lebel, the global audiences witness a possible perfect crime but, in the end, reality had the last laugh. Even after taking all the contingencies into account, Jackal couldn’t kill President De Gaulle as he didn’t take into account that the President may bend in honour of the war veteran.
Drenched in reality, many scenes of the movie were actually shot in the real military parade with real President De Gaulle taking part in it. The audience were so enthralled that the movie set a threshold of making movies based on reality.
Rather than the usual style where Protagonist wins in the end, the director gave it a poetic ending. Instead of success, the protagonist dies an anonymous death. The director leaves it open for the global audiences to decipher the inevitable question: Who was Jackal?
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